Professor Jessica Rawson speaks at the Tang Prize Week 2023
Winner of the 2022 Tang Prize in Sinology, Honorary Fellow and former Warden (1994-2010) Professor Dame Jessica Rawson DBE FBA, spoke at the Tang Prize Week in Taipei in August 2023, where the 2022 Tang Prize laureates’ research was celebrated in a week of events.
The 2022 Tang Prize Winners
The 2022 Tang Prize winners spoke in Forums and Lectures, which were well-attended and enthusiastically received. Alongside Professor Rawson were eminent scientists and lawyers, including world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development and senior UN advisor Jeffrey D. Sachs (Sustainable Development); biochemists and key figures behind the successful development of mRNA COIVD-19 vaccines Dr Katalin Kariko, Dr Drew Weissman and Dr Pieter Cullis (Biopharmaceutical Science); and pioneer in comparative constitutional law Professor Cheryl Saunders (Rule of Law).
Dr Pieter Cullis has a connection with Merton College, as in the 1970s he worked at the University of Oxford with the Merton College Warden, Sir Rex Richards. Dr Cullis’s world-leading research is in the field of lipid nanoparticles (LNP), which are essential to mRNA vaccines as a delivery system. Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman are leading figures in the use of mRNA technology as used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. mRNA-LNP technology holds immense potential for further research, development and application. Besides mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, it can also be applied in other medical areas, such as cancer treatment, gene therapy and infectious diseases.
Professor Rawson’s Tang Prize for Sinology was awarded for her trail-blazing scholarship and her 'gift and mastery' in reading Chinese civilisation through art and artefacts. According to the Tang prize citation, Professor Rawson has given 'voice to the ancient world of objects … [and] taught generations how to see when they look at things'.
About the Tang Prize
The Tang Prize was established by Dr Samuel Yin in December 2012. It consists of four award categories — Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally-renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender.
